


A Third Option

by tatersalad5001



Category: Rockman.EXE | Mega Man Battle Network
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, this takes place in megaman battle network 2, what else should i even tag this with, yeah this takes place in that part of the game, you know the section in netopia where you get robbed fifty times and knightman's the boss?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-24 08:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20702675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatersalad5001/pseuds/tatersalad5001
Summary: So much for the plan. Chaud had flipped the script completely; he was the one accusing them now. If he really was the Gospel NetBattler, he was putting on quite the act. Threatening to arrest Lan and delete MegaMan... No way Lan was letting that happen!Chaud was challenging him, and the only way that could end would be with either MegaMan or ProtoMan deleted. The last time that Lan and Chaud worked together, MegaMan'd had to delete ProtoMan then, too. Lan didn't really want a repeat of that scenario, and... Losing MegaMan wasn't an option. Not now.





	A Third Option

"I'm arresting you under official rights, Lan."

"I'm telling you, Chaud, I'm not the Gospel NetBattler! You have to believe me!"

Chaud shook his head, not listening to a word Lan said. "We'll have time to talk about it all in detail later. First, I will delete MegaMan: the root of these evils!"

Delete MegaMan?! Lan took a step back. When he and MegaMan first came into this room, this wasn't how he pictured this conversation playing at all.

NetBattlers from all over the world had gathered in Netopia to work together to stop the group known as Gospel. Gospel had managed to infiltrate the meeting and separate them all, putting each of the NetBattlers in separate traps. While the NetBattlers had all stayed on call and tried to deactivate all the traps, it became clear that one of them was working with Gospel the whole time. None of them had been sure who it was, but as more and more of them fell victim to the traps... the only people left standing were Lan and Chaud. Lan knew that he wasn't the Gospel NetBattler. So, as much as they both hated it, he and MegaMan had come to the conclusion that the traitor in their group must be Chaud. The two of them had come here to confront Chaud about it.

So much for that plan. Chaud had flipped the script completely; he was the one accusing them now. If he really was the Gospel NetBattler, he was putting on quite the act. Threatening to arrest Lan and delete MegaMan... No way Lan was letting that happen!

Chaud was challenging him, and the only way that could end would be with either MegaMan or ProtoMan deleted. The last time that Lan and Chaud worked together, MegaMan'd had to delete ProtoMan then, too. Lan didn't really want a repeat of that scenario, and... Losing MegaMan wasn't an option. Not now.

Was there a third option here? Was it possible that Chaud wasn't the Gospel NetBattler either? Lan desperately wanted that to be true. If that was the case, he tried looking at this situation from Chaud's perspective.

Chaud was smart. Way smarter than Lan was. So if Lan was able to come to the conclusion of Chaud being the Gospel NetBattler, then Chaud wouldn't have much trouble getting to that conclusion, either, with Lan being the Gospel NetBattler in his case. Lan didn't like thinking that Chaud might be his enemy, because as mean as Chaud could be, he'd never given Lan any reason not to trust him. But Chaud was kind of a jerk. He hadn't liked Lan from the start, always claiming Lan was getting in his way, and getting upset whenever Lan happened to make any kind of mistake. He only liked to put his trust in Lan when he really had to, and if Lan really thought about it, he could see why. One of the first time they'd both gotten involved fighting against the same scheme, back when it was the WWW they were fighting against, Lan had accidentally given everyone in town access to a poisoned water supply. Lan hadn't given a great first impression, even if it was an accident.

Heck, Lan didn't need to look that far back. Before he'd been able to fight against ShadowMan, Lan had needed the Change.bat program for MegaMan. The only place he'd been able to find the program was at Yumland's Square. The program was apparently very important to Yumland, though, and after he and MegaMan stole the program from there, they needed their dad's help to give the program back and clear their names. Lan wouldn't be surprised if Chaud had heard about the whole thing. 

Lan'd had good intentions then, but at the end of the day, he was still a thief.

The world didn't operate in black and white morality, and Lan knew that. A guy who cared about the environment and wanted people to stop littering the forest meant well, but that didn't make blowing up the forest, and everyone in it, the right thing to do. How was what Lan did then any different? If anyone else had done what Lan did, he'd know how he'd feel about it. It wasn't the right thing to do. There should've been another way. 

There had to be another way now.

Lan looked down at his PET.

He called Chaud a jerk all the time. But Chaud was an Official NetBattler; most of the time he was just trying to do his job. He could give Chaud the benefit of the doubt on that. Being an Official NetBattler must be stressful. But since coming to Netopia, Lan had started acting like a jerk, too. He'd argued with MegaMan, blaming MegaMan for things that weren't his fault. He'd misdirected his anger and stress, and he'd left MegaMan vulnerable. He'd let someone steal his passport and hurt MegaMan. Right now, Lan felt like a much bigger jerk than Chaud could be.

Did he even deserve to have MegaMan? After everything he put MegaMan through? 

Lan looked up at Chaud.

He didn't want to think Chaud was his enemy. So if the Gospel NetBattler was someone else, then it would be easier to take that person down if MegaMan and ProtoMan could work as a team, rather than if one of them deleted the other over what might just be a misunderstanding. That required a lot of trust in Chaud, when Chaud could be the real enemy. But Lan trusted him. He couldn't convince himself not to.

"Chaud... If I hand over my PET and I don't resist arrest, will you promise not to delete MegaMan?"

"Lan?! What are you doing?!" MegaMan sounded panicked from Lan's PET. When the two of them were separated in the Electopia airport, neither of them had taken the separation well. They were almost always together.

"I don't like it either, MegaMan. But I don't want you or ProtoMan to get deleted," Lan told him. "I don't know what else to do." Sure, ProtoMan could be restored from a backup by Chaud, but deleting him still felt wrong. Besides, restoring ProtoMan would take time, and that might not be time that Chaud had.

Chaud didn't answer Lan right away, which Lan thought was strange. This couldn't be the first time this had happened, right? There must be some sort of Official NetBattler policy about this. Besides, Chaud never hesitated.

"...A Navi should only be evil when in the wrong hands," Chaud answered eventually. "MegaMan shouldn't help Gospel if you don't have him. So there shouldn't be a need to delete him."

Something about Chaud's voice was off. Lan wasn't sure if this was really what Chaud was supposed to do in this situation or not, but either way, he was grateful. Preventing MegaMan and ProtoMan from being deleted were the most important things to him right now.

"Lan!" MegaMan yelled. "Don't do this!"

"Sorry, MegaMan."

Lan handed his PET over to Chaud.

**Author's Note:**

> writing yugioh fics has ruined my inability to name anything well because most of the time i just use yugioh cards for fic names. how am i gonna do that in megaman, huh? yeah, here's my newest fic: SilverFist E! 
> 
> i needed to calm down and writing this was...calming. thank you, megaman.
> 
> i'm currently in the middle of playing battle network 2 for the first time, i haven't played any of the games that take place after battle network 2, so not hitting me with those spoilers would be super appreciated, thank you. i am enjoying the game lots, and i will soon enjoy the other games as well.
> 
> sorry if lan is really out of character here this was just something i felt like exploring super quickly.
> 
> anyway, thanks for reading!! hope you enjoyed!


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